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Today's consumers are changing everything

Tomorrow's customers are knocking on the doors of universities, employers and retirement communities. Gen Z is a year into its college invasion. There are more millennials in the workforce today, surpassing both Gen X and baby boomers, who are retiring.

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Change may be constant, but every once in a while, there comes a “Holy crap!” moment—a seismic shift that shakes up everything. In noncommercial foodservice, that time is now. Gen Z is a year into its college invasion—creating a wake that will last more than a decade. At the same time, there are more millennials in the workforce today than any other demographic group, surpassing both Gen X and baby boomers, the oldest of whom are settling into retirement. Foodservice operators serving these audiences in universities, business and industry and senior living are making big changes to their menus and practices to receive them. We asked three early adjusters to tell us how they’re readying for the new normal.

 What Gen Z wants

 What millennials want

 What baby boomers want

About the Authors

Kelly Killian

Editor

Kelly Smith Killian is Editor of Restaurant Business. This role marks a return to the foodservice industry for Kelly who previously was editor-in-chief of Restaurants & Institutions magazine, a former industry publication that won American Business Media’s Jesse H. Neal award for business journalism.

Kelly has extensive experience writing and editing content that is compelling, visual and audience-focused. She’s covered everything from real estate to weddings, having helped launch Four Seasons Weddings as editorial consultant and served as editor of Martha Stewart Weddings for four years.  She also brings to Restaurant Business a finance background that she picked up during her seven years with Money Magazine (including three as assistant bureau chief in Washington, D.C.).

Kelly studied English at the University of California, Berkeley. She also completed the Radcliffe Publishing Course at Harvard (now at Columbia University).

Kelly lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her husband, two sons and dog Sadie.

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